Aubrey Williams (8 May 1926 – 27 April 1990) was a Guyanese artist. He was best known for his large, oil-on-canvas paintings, which combine elements of abstract expressionism with forms, images and symbols inspired by the pre-Columbian art of indigenous peoples of the Americas.
Born in Georgetown in British Guiana (now Guyana), Williams began drawing and painting at an early age. He received informal art tutoring from the age of three, and joined the Working People's Art Class at the age of 12. After training to be an agronomist, he worked as an Agricultural Field Officer for eight years, initially on the sugar plantations of the East Coast and later in the North-West region of the country—an area inhabited primarily by the indigenous Warao people. His time among the Warao had a dramatic impact on his artistic approach, and initiated the complex obsession with pre-Columbian arts and cultures that ran throughout his artistic career.
Williams left Guyana at the height of the Independence Movement in 1952, and moved to the United Kingdom. Following his first exhibition in London in 1954, he became an increasingly significant figure in the post-war British avant-garde art scene, particularly through his association with Denis Bowen's New Vision Centre Gallery. In 1966, he came together with a group of London-based Caribbean artists and intellectuals to found the Caribbean Artists Movement, which served as a dynamic hub of cultural events and activity until its dissolution in 1972. From 1970 onwards, Williams worked in studios in Jamaica and Florida as well as the UK, and it was during this period that he produced three of his best-known series of paintings: Shostakovich (1969–1981), The Olmec-Maya and Now (1981–1985) and Cosmos (1989).
Life
Early years
Aubrey Williams was born on 8 May 1926 in Georgetown in British Guiana, the eldest of seven children. His parents were middle-class Guyanese with mixed African, Carib, and possibly other, ancestry. He was raised in accordance with Christian, English values, and his parents strongly discouraged his childhood interest in populist, African-derived, art forms such as Anancy stories and the masquerade bands (locally known as "Santapee bands") that performed in the streets of Georgetown at Christmas.
Williams' artistic tendencies emerged early on in his youth. When he was three years old, and living on Bourda Street in central Georgetown, he produced an observational sketch of a turkey vulture eating a dead rat in Bourda Cemetery. On seeing the drawing, his father (who was working as a postman at that time) took it to a local Dutch art restorer, named Mr De Wynter, who worked in the churches of British Guiana. De Wynter instantly recognised Williams artistic talent, and decided to offer him informal art training. They worked together for five years. Reflecting on this early art training years later, Williams noted that it was very different from conventional methods of teaching art in the UK: "He [De Wynter] would give me a task to perform, say, ask me to draw some animals or some fruits. He would then take the drawing and see if it was good. He would never correct the drawing. He would instead make another drawing." It was, Williams said, the "best method" he had ever come across, and one that profoundly influenced him in his own career as an art teacher.
Between the ages of 12 and 15, while he was still at school, Williams attended the Working People's Art Class (WPAC) in Georgetown, which was led by the artist E. R. Burrowes. At the age of 15, Williams enrolled on a four-year agricultural apprenticeship scheme that was run in affiliation with University College, London. His training included a special focus on sugar production. He was appointed as an Agricultural Field Officer in 1944.
Adult life in British Guiana
Agricultural Officer on the East Coast
In the early years of his employment with the Department of Agriculture in British Guiana, Williams occupied three positions simultaneously: Field Officer, Agricultural Superintendent for the East Coast, and Cane-Farming Officer. He was appointed to the latter position following his efforts to negotiate with the government on behalf of the cane-farmers. As Cane-Farming Officer, he was expected to "smooth out relations" between the owners and managers of the sugar plantations and the workers, without "rocking the boat". Williams, however, had other plans. He worked hard to defend the rights of the cane-farmers, and in doing so was brought into regular confrontation with the plantation managers. Indeed, in his words, he became "a bloody thorn in their side, demanding correct figures, fair play, and that sort of thing". Although this period of his life was a very stressful one, Williams continued painting throughout.
The Working People's Art Class
Shortly after he qualified as an Agricultural Officer, Williams contacted E. R. Burrowes and returned to the Working People's Art Class, but this time as a teacher and organiser. Together they extended the WPAC beyond central Georgetown by setting up auxiliary classes throughout the East Coast. Williams himself established new classes in the agricultural regions in which he was working, and would often lead classes when Burrowes was unavailable. The classes were held at least twice weekly.
Time among the Warao in the North-West
After a number of years working on the East Coast, Williams was sent to work among the Warao (or Warrau) people in the North-West of the country (now the Barima-Waini region, or Region 1). He was put in charge of the Agricultural Station in the area. Although he had technically been promoted, Williams initially viewed his redeployment as a form of punishment for his activism on behalf of the sugar-cane farmers. "It was like sending someone to Siberia," he said.
However, Williams' perspective on his time in the North-West region changed dramatically within the first six months. He ultimately stayed in the area for two years, and the interaction he had with Warao people during this period had a profound effect on his artistic development. Listening to the Warao talk about colour and form totally transformed his understanding of art; and his experiences in this region instigated an interest in pre-Columbian culture and artefacts which subsequently became "the core of [his] artistic activity". Indeed, in 1987 Williams reflected: "[I]t was there that for the first time I discovered myself as an artist. Before that it was all amateur activity. [...] I have to thank the Warrau people now for my work as an artist". Williams created many paintings while working in the North-West region, but he destroyed most of his work soon after it was created.
Return to Georgetown
After two years living with the Warao, Williams returned to Georgetown, where he resumed his work with the Working People's Art Class. The moment of his return, however, was a time of great political upheaval in the city. The Independence Movement in British Guiana was gaining strength, and most of his friends had joined the People's Progressive Party (PPP), which was at the forefront of the struggle. Although Williams was never a member of the PPP, and did not attend any of their meetings, he was close to the party's leader, Cheddi Jagan. This association alone raised suspicion among British colonists, prompting an investigation into Williams' early work for the Department of Agriculture, and he was ultimately accused of having founded "farmer's communes" on the East Coast. Around this time, one of his friends in the PPP – who he would later claim "saved his life" – advised him to leave the country. Three months later, Williams took this advice and departed for the UK.
England
The first few years
Williams arrived in England in 1952 at the age of 26. He took up accommodation at Hans Crescent in London – an area that was, according to him, populated by the "colonial elite": "the sons of Maharajas, the upper middle classes" – and enrolled on a course in Agricultural Engineering at the University of Leicester. However, following discouragement from his university lecturers and growing feelings of discomfort with his accommodation (he later described Hans Crescent as part of a form of "British brainwashing and indoctrination" because "after living like [that] for a few months you would begin to despise your own people back home"), he dropped his university course and embarked on a period of travel in Europe and the UK. During his travels he met Albert Camus who, in turn, introduced him to Pablo Picasso. For Williams, the meeting with Picasso was a "big disappointment". On being introduced, the Spanish painter told him that "[he] had a very fine African head" and said that he would like Williams to pose for him. "I felt terrible," Williams recalled. "In spite of the fact that I was introduced to him as an artist, he did not think of me as another artist. He thought of me only as something he could use for his own work."
On returning from his travels in 1954, Williams enrolled as a student at St Martin's School of Art. He studied at St. Martin's for more than two and a half years. In his second year, however, he decided that he wanted to use the school's facilities and resources but did not want their diploma and thus did not register after this time. In 1954 he held his first exhibition at the little-known Archer Gallery in Westbourne Grove in London. During these early years in London, Williams married his partner, Eve Lafargue, who had travelled with him from British Guiana.
Recognition: from New Vision to the Commonwealth Prize
Sometime in the late 1950s Williams met Denis Bowen—founder of the New Vision Group and director of the New Vision Gallery in London from 1951 to 1966. Though under-recognized at the time, the New Vision Centre Gallery (NVCG) played an important role in the post-war British art scene through its promotion of abstract art and its unusual openness to, and interest in, artists from all around the world. Williams' involvement with the NVCG marked an important turning-point in his career. A number of his paintings were included in the New Vision Open Exhibition in early 1958, and the Gallery put on two solo exhibitions of his work in August 1959 and November 1960. These exhibitions were a great success for Williams: his work received positive reviews from numerous art critics and sold well, and he subsequently obtained further invitations to exhibit in Paris, Milan and Chicago.
At the time of this success, Williams felt that he had "made it" as an artist. However, after two years the interest in his work subsided and his exhibitions started to be ignored. For Williams, this precipitated a five-year period of self-doubt and "confusion".
Another breakthrough in his career came in 1963 when 40 of his paintings were exhibited in the Commonwealth Biennale of Abstract Art at the Commonwealth Institute in London."1st Commonwealth Biennale of Abstract Art", Diaspora Artists. Williams was awarded the only prize of the exhibition for his painting Roraima (the £50 prize was donated by the British artist Frank Avray Wilson). In 1965 Williams was awarded the Commonwealth Prize for Painting, which was presented by Queen Elizabeth II.
The Caribbean Artists Movement